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Exclusive: Fitz & The Tantrums electrify Live In The Vineyard

Originally Published April 10, 2014 – 3:50 PM MST for Examiner.com

I’ve been swooning over the musicality, wit and charm produced by Fitz & The Tantrums for almost two years. I’ve watched them go from dominant independent artists to notable charting leaders in the industry. Their most recent album release, ‘MoreThan Just A Dream’ has indeed brought their dreams to the forefront of reality and the ‘Out Of My League’ singers have found themselves in a league of their own.

Along with staple rockers OAR, they co-headlined the first evening of Live In The Vineyard’s two night concert event at the Uptown Theater in Napa, CA. They galvanized the venue with their energy and humor, performing hit upon hit for one of the liveliest stage sets of the entire weekend.

I caught Michael Fitzpatrick (aka Fitz) sneaking around the after party at the Westin just an hour or so after his set. He was there, just as eager as the rest of us, to watch Better Than Ezra perform on the after hours stage. He affably conversed with me, as well as anyone else that recognized him; which as it turns out, was nearly everyone in attendance. His down to earth artistry is truly as tangible in his off stage persona.

Before all the festivities began, I was lucky enough to ‘sneak’ in on a little something myself, an interview with front lady and man of Fitz & The Tantrums, Noelle and Fitz. Visual Realm graciously allowed us to sit in and listen as the duo unearthed their plans for the summer, preparations for their upcoming tour, as well as eliciting the creation of a new word or two. Check out the exclusive interview below.

Visual Realm: First and foremost, congratulations guys! You’ve had some pretty amazing recent success. Would you like to tell us a little about what you’re working on for the summer?

Fitz: Our second single off our album, ‘More Than Just a Dream’, ‘The Walker’ is doing amazing right now and it’s just getting to critical mass. We’re going to be just hitting the road hard this summer and playing a lot of the festivals. What else?

Noelle: Shopping, shopping, shopping! Because you have to get essential tour gear for all of the music festivals coming up. Everything from your waterproof gear for when it rains…

Fitz: To your safari hat…

Noelle: To your very, very short shorts if you’re a girl…

Fitz: To fresh clean underwear.

Noelle: Exactly (laughs).

VR: How about any songs for people to keep their eye on?

Noelle: Songs you should definitely keep an eye out for is ‘The Walker’ of course. I would say also, ‘6 a.m.’ which is one of my favorites on the record.

Fitz: And ‘Fools Gold’

Noelle: ‘Break The Walls’…I mean why don’t you just get the whole record (laughs).

Fitz: Well, we are here in glorious Napa where we are getting a little bit of rain and a little bit of sunshine and definitely a few rainbows. And we’re here at Live In The Vineyard and we’re hopefully going to blow up the stage with some superness, some awesomeness –